Pastor Deric's Blog

Wise Up!

Posted on Feb 11, 2022 in Pastor Deric's Blog |

We live in raucous times, don’t you think? Faith doesn’t automatically deliver an obvious answer for every problem that we face. Whether it’s a personal matter or a public protest, very little is as simple as some people make it out to be. Usually, there is truth on both sides of any given argument.

Does that mean that we are left adrift in a sea of unsolvable conundrums? God forbid! It’s not so. God has provided a lifeline for each of His children to know what to do in complex situations. His answer is to know how to access His wisdom, for there is no problem too difficult for the Lord to solve. Never!

That’s why the Bible places such a high priority on attaining wisdom. Let me give you a short list of decrees from the Bible assuring us of the high value of wisdom in our lives.

Psalm 90:12 says, “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” MOST will grow older but not necessarily wiser. I wish I had the time to address the fact that God’s goal for us is to attain a “heart” of wisdom. Shouldn’t it be a “mind” of wisdom? Psalm 90 makes it clear that wisdom is more than knowledge. But the fact remains that the Psalmist tells us that our wisdom should grow with every passing day.

Proverbs 4:5-9 is one of my favourites on the subject of wisdom. “Get wisdom; get insight; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you. The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight. Prize her highly, and she will exalt you; she will honour you if you embrace her. She will place on your head a graceful garland; she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.” No commentary needed except to say that wisdom will promote you to “royal” status.

The third reminder about wisdom appears in Proverbs 16, verse 16. “How much better to get wisdom than gold! To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.” That’s a rebuke to most of us who love money, status, accomplishment and power more than we do wisdom. Money has a way of making fools out of us.

So, if wisdom is so important, how do we get it? The answer is very simple.

Every Christian has been given the wisdom of God through the mechanism of their salvation. Listen to how Paul explained it to the Corinthians in the first chapter of his first letter to them. “God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, ³¹so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” Jesus our Lord is the source of all wisdom and we have been given “the mind of Christ.” As you walk with Him, He will make you wise.

Every Christian must ask God in faith to apply His wisdom to the challenging situations of life, just as He instructed us in James Chapter 1. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

Your salvation and your faith make you wise to see the world through the eyes of God. So when you grow in wisdom as prescribed by the Bible, you have a spiritual advantage in facing intimidating issues.

One last thing about wisdom. “Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm” (Proverbs 13:20). Make friends of wise people and you will gain wisdom.

I look forward to continuing our sermon series on the subject of developing a Christian worldview. Which is to simply say that I look forward to pursuing the wisdom of God in the study of the Bible. See you at 9AM or 11AM.

Your servant,

Pastor Deric

Angry Much?

Posted on Feb 4, 2022 in Pastor Deric's Blog |

When you stay anchored in your God-given identity as outlined in the Bible, very little will “rattle” you. I’ve spent well over 40 years getting to know Jesus and I’m still enthralled with the reality that no matter what burden He carried, or barrier He faced, He remained calm and self-controlled. I’m not suggesting that He didn’t experience a wide range of human emotions. We know He did. But He was never carried away by those emotions. He expressed them, but it was always in a measured way.

Imagine Jesus being hounded everywhere He went. He felt the tension and knew there was trouble brewing. He often predicted it and extracted Himself from confrontation because He knew His greatest hour was yet to come. He lived by God’s agenda, and He never succumbed to a sucker punch from His enemies. In His daily life He remained the paragon of perfect peace! And it’s the same peace (His peace) that He gives us (See John 14:27).

All that to say, don’t get rattled by all the provocative images that you see every day in the news. Don’t cave to fear. Don’t perpetuate the irrational and incendiary digs of the world. Stay anchored in God’s Word. Stay connected to Jesus. Listen more than you speak. Pray a lot. Speak thoughtfully and prayerfully when you do.

There is a time to be angry. But remember that anger can be a deadly soul drug to which you can easily become addicted. Choose wisely about what you allow to anger you. Won’t we look foolish when we find out we followed a popular narrative in the MSM (mainstream media) only to find out later that we were duped, in whole or in part. My point is that we are unwisely allowing the wrong things to anger us. Make no mistake, anger clouds your judgment unless you keep it in check, i.e., you control it, it doesn’t control you. Furthermore, make no mistake that the name-calling and character judgments that are so common in today’s public discourse is born of raw, disrespectful, targeted anger. It never works.

Now to my point for writing this blog. When it comes to any number of the extremely important matters over which the culture is currently battling, I want to say to you, my fellow Christian, take a measured approach. Shouting, shaming, and seething about these problems won’t help. That’s why I am currently conducting our series, “The Gospel and Culture.” We are riding on the coat tails of Scott Stein and friends over at preparedtoanswer.org (check it out for yourself). Our small groups, NextGen, and Sunday sermons are focused on four key concepts over these eight weeks: identity, sexuality, plurality, and spirituality. They are core Bible ideas that are linked to the Gospel.

This week we are going to focus on WHY these ideas are important to us and HOW we should respond to them. See you at the 9 or 11 AM service. If you are able, please register online. If you have any trouble doing so, just show up and we will register you at the door.

Keep Calm and carry on.

Pastor Deric